kvwloon

thank you. :)

Any one know the track rod end to steering rack shoulder measurement for the left hand side please. It's a '90 16v 1.8 Ta in advance.

Hmm, I've noticed tonight I have the same thing, passenger side wheel seems to be sticking out more on the passenger side, by about 1cm. Around 18 months ago did some front suspension work, new wishbones, new steering rack, took off the driveshafts and renewed the grease / gaitors, renewed the cv joint gaitors, the balljoints and the track rod ends, new brake flexys etc. Obviously the geometry was wildly out afterwards, so had a 4 wheel tracking done, and all fine to drive after. One thing I did notice was on the drivers side, there track rod end winds on by around 20 threads, but the passenger side only around 5 to 6. Not too happy about this, but no obvious cause or error, seemed secure enough when the locknut bolted up, and not commented on by the gargae that did the alignment adjustments. This year, pre-MOT, renewed the steering rack gaitors, and while there fitted new track rod ends. Got and fitted a new steering rack tie rod arm on passenger side (a tad more threads for the track rod end), and new track rod end (again. a tad more threads to make me feel happier), but tonight, noticed the passenger wheel sits more out by about 1cm than the drivers side. The ball joints both seem to be on the outer ends of the slots in the wishbone, nothing seems obviously amiss, the CV joints seem to sit in the hubs equally when compared against each other. The drive shaft has some lateral play, but I expect this is normal to allow it to move in the hub splines as the wheels go up and down while driving. It all looks good, even, and secure underneasth, other than being 1cm out in the wheel arch on the pasenger side than the drivers. Any thoughts appreciated. :?

Yep, that's helpful info, ta.

I know they've been going for years, which is a good sign, they seems to have a fair bit of Corrado's in stock, prices at the upper end IMO, but the mileage / standard of car seems at the upper end as well, so fair enough. I'm looking to go from a 16v to a VR6. Anyone on here a local who can confirm (a) their reputation and (b) Is it a nice part of the country to make a weekend of it. I'm guessing it's peak district so should be nice? Ta in advance.

Cheers people, yep, rear brakes were done reasonably recently. If memory serves, I think I did the bleeding with the weight off the rear wheels, so yep, will do as you suggest and give it a thorough weight-on-wheels bleed first and go from there. I have done a visual on the rear disks to confirm the rears are actually working (i.e. all surface rust on the discs gone/clean after a quick trip), and it's all good fromgettign good braking figures at MOT aspect. Ta again.

'bout it really. Can hear the brake compensator valve 'squeek' when release the brakes, but both the mOT man and the local garage have commented on the increased brake pedal travel on my rado (90 to91 16v). Would the brake comp. valve be a culprit? The brakes actually work fine, aside from the pedal travel, passed MOT yesterday. ta in advance.

cheers chap, good info.

Last MOT, for some reason my offside headlight has no proper 'kickoff' pattern. MOT'er let it go this time, but needs rectifying wih a new headlight. Been thinking about Inpro's or Venom replacements for a while anyway, and this could be my opportunity, but.....could use some advice, I'm not sure how they will look fitted, and don't want it to look too blingy....so. 1- Does anyone have photos of them fitted? 2- Were they easy to fit and configure to right hand drive? 3 - Is the quality and light output any good? 4 - Any bad experiences (or good for that matter) with relaibility etc I like the idea of angel eyes / HID, but don't want to balls up the original beaty that is the 'rado. :)

well, the original was in pretty good nick to be honest, apart from one corroded bit on the large flat mid exhaust . I can only assume the 'new' one is a lot more free flowing?

ah, was kinda expecting the 'what make' question, should have said, no makers name on it. Appears to have been fabricated by one of those bespoke stainless exhaust making places. When I first got 'rado ten odd years ago you couldn't get a 16v stainless exhaust, just VR, now it seems the whole rado range is covered off the shelf by the major manufacturers. Pricey though, of course. If they're anything like the one I have now, well worth doing.

.....seeing as I've had the 16v 'rado over ten years now, and see no reason to ever sell her, have been thinking of investing in a new stainless exhaust. Been keeping an eye on Ebay for a while, and bugger me, a near as dammit new removed system came up for £100 posted. Took a bit of a gamble and bought it. Fitted it over weekend, took it for a good drive tonight...... ....and bloody hell, she flies! Sounds great too, not loud and in yer face, but when accelerating hard sounds lovely. Never expected an exhaust to make so much difference to performance. Chuffed. Ebay can still come up good. :D

Sounds to me like Performance Car mag don't know an awful lot about performance VW's. :scratch:

excellent, thank you. Think the best thing I can do now is to put the balljoints in the mid position in their slots, and then adjust the camber on the strut as you say from there. Thanks all, great advice on this forum as ever. :)

...all starting to make sense to me now, luckily I've got a scaffolders spirit level, which is shorter than normal and the ends sit nicely right on the flat rims either edge of the wheel. The left wheel is leaning waaaay 'out' at the top, and the right wheel is leaning waaaay 'in' at the top like so... \ -axle- \ which would totally explain my current situation with the track rod ends, one side way in, one side way out. I never realised camber could have such an effect, always thought it was quite a minute adjustment, but now I can see how much of an effect it is having. I reckon it' was down to me being a bit careless with the ball joint positions. ....many thanks for getting me going in the right direction (see what I did there! :) ) with this problem, it's been driving me mad, thanks to you I now know what I've done wrong, which is half the battle. ....one last(?!) thing, what is my best way forward to solve this, loosen off the ball joint bolts and adjust position until about right, or should camber really only be adjusted at bottom shock strut bolts?

Cheers David, any help is much appreciated! Basically I decided over last few months to replace, for various reasons (mostly getting the old gal up to a decent mechanical standard again), steering rack, main subframe, wishbones, ball joints, top strut mounts, outer cv gaiters, anti-roll bar bushes/mounts, discs and pads.....so yes, there has been plenty of scope for me screwing up the camber during all this, I just didn't think it would affect the toe so much. Plan last night was to tackle this by going back to basics and checking the rack was centralised, then shift the tie rod adjustments both 'across' equally to the other side if that makes sense, but no matter what I do I'm always ending up with the right hand track rod wound right up in to the rack arm, and on the left hand side not enough threads to wind the track rod end on with enough threads for proper adjustment /safety. In other words, for your question "have you got loads of adjustment left on the other side then?" Yep, that's exactly it. Loads on one side, sod all on the other (left) side. What am I looking for with the spirit level, completely level up and down? Ta muchly for the advice.

this thread could be right up my street too, been having no end of trouble getting my tracking sorted. mind if I jump in with my problem, to see if it's solvable in the same way described on page 1. Basically, replaced steering rack and top strut mounts. Tracking miles out, but got it dead-reckoned near enough to drive to garage, bit concerned that on left had tie rod the adjustment was right near the end of the threads!, Anyway, garage set it up with no comments. Few months later noticed that on the nearside, the inner edge of the tyre was bald! Had the tyre repalced today and asked them to check the tracking, they said it was very 'out', adjusted it as far as they could but that on the left hand side they had run out of enough threads to safely adjust it. So.....any ideas? Should I get the camber checked and then go from there. Checked tonight that steering / rack was centralised ok, tried winding the left hand tie rod ten turns 'in; and the right hand side ten turns 'out' to even out the threads the tie rods are set on, then reset the sterring wheel to centre, but no joy...bit baffled, always end up with the left hand tie rod right on the limit of having enough threads left for comfort. :confused4: :confused4: :confused4:

one of the best mods on an early 'rado, much much better feel to the gear change. :)

don't know if it helps, but I just got some pressed plates made up, but to try and avoid trouble, using UK font and correct spacing, but with stadt stickers, hopefully I'll be OK, time will tell? Ebay does 'em.

That's a relief then, think I normally get 'trade' at GSF, seeing as I've been going there for years on what feels like an at least four times a month basis. the joys of keeping a Pug 306 daily driver, the 'rado, a 59 splitty van and a '72 bay going! :D

Well, I got them from GSF, and asked for German origin. They were recognised German names (URI for the tensioner I think, (although it did say 'slovakia' on the tensioner), I thought the quality control would still be acceptable with a German owned company. Don't worry me by saying I should have gone for genuine only! :( I suppose I could change the tensioner for genuine pretty easily if there have been a lot of horrror stories about non-genuine?

Thank you all for the info (and especially the two illustrations), did the job on Saturday in a little over 3 hours - mainly due to struggling getting those bloody stupid allen bolts off the various belt drive wheels. Didn't TDC it in the end, just made damn sure I accurately marked the top and bottom pulley positions. New belts, tensioner and set of new Beru plugs all for under £38 a few hours of my time and an occasional swearing session, well pleased. :)

thanks all (more info welcome!), think I'll see if I can shift that bottom pulley and go from there.....

...thinking of either a)spending around £160 to £220 on getting cambelt changed.....or doing it myself. Is it fairly easy to do? I've heard it's easy to get the 16v 'one cog out'? Reading the manuals it of course says put engine to TDC, but is this really necessary (could be stoopid question I know), but surely, if I accurately marked all the shaft pulleys in relation to the engine and themselves, wouldn't this save having to TDC it, and lessen the chances of getting it slightly out either way? Any guidance appreciated, I'm 50/50 for having a go myself....but I know getting it wrong could be disasterous.

In Praise of The AA and the older car.... ...decided to take the 'rado to work today..... trundling along nicely, when......radio starts to play up and dies......then wipers get sluggish.......demist fan dies .....lights seem dim, even the fuel gauge dies on me......then engine goes lumpy. Turn round to head for home, engine dies,...... and we coast to halt on the side of the A11. No warning lights in any of this, but voltmeter way down. Luckily the guy I lift share with has a Golf that did the same thing last year, plus he's an aircraft electrician so understands wiggly amps.....'I reckon the alternator has died on you and discharged the battery with it'. Bugger me, he's right, give it ten minutes for the battery to recover, start the engine and pull off to somewhere safer and that sells coffee before the battery fuully discharges again, and await the AA. All the time I'm thinking 'sh#t, that'll be tow back home and £150 for an alternator then'. AA turns up 'I reckon it's the brushes on the alternator worn'. Unscrews brush pack from alternator, two screws, two minutes later, and confirms they are worn out - VERY! 'I think I've got a new brushpack in the van stock'., says Mr. AA Sure enough, he has , ten minutes and £20 for the AA later, new brushes fitted, and I'm on the road again, all fixed. In the words of the nice AA man, it's nice to work on a car you can actualy fix, not like the modern stuff. Damn right says I!